ICT in Education

Today I visited RM and during my time there I had the opportunity to get my hands on the Asus Eee PC (or the RM Asus miniBook as they are calling it).

The Asus Eee PC is a mini PC that runs using a Linux OS rather than Windows (yay! ) and comes bundled with a whole bunch of Open Source (yay! ) software:

• OpenOffice for documents, spreadsheets, presentations
• Firefox (for Internet, of course)
• Thunderbird for email
• Pidgin for Instant Messaging (MSN, Yahoo, IRC)
• Skype
• PDF Reader
• Music, Photo and Video Managers
• A range of educational programs including TuxPaint
• A range of games (Solitaire, Sudoku etc)

You can see what is available and test drive some of this here: Asus Eee PC Online Interactive Demo

The specs of the Asus are:

• Mobile Intel Celeron-M ULV 900MHz processor
• Asus-developed Linux-based operating system
• 7″ TFT screen
• 256MB or 512MB Memory
• 2GB or 4GB Solid-State Hard Drive
• Integrated LAN
• Lithium-Ion battery
• Integrated IEEE 802.11b/g wireless
• Integrated webcam
• Integrated microphone and speakers
• Ports for external microphone and speakers or headphones
• Options of wireless 3G module
• 3 USB ports
• VGA-out port
• SD card reader

These are taken from RM: RM Asus miniBook

There’s an 8Gb model planned for next year. The solid-state hard drive should make it a bit more robust than a PC with a standard hard disc. The SD card reader is a nice addition as it means the capacity of the Asus can be increased beyond the current 2Gb/4Gb size without having to have a USB pen drive sticking out of the side.

Wireless capability will be great in schools that have this, as a group of children or a class can then be using the Internet from the classroom without having to trek down to the ICT suite.

Asus estimate that the battery will last for around 3.5 hours (depending on usage), which would be enough for half a day’s work before charging at lunchtime or at the end of the school day.

It is possible, although not that easy, to install other software on the Asus. Here are details of software that has been tried on it: Applications tested on the Eee PC

I am very excited about the Asus Eee PC/ RM Asus miniBook. I think it has great potential – more so that using PDAs in school. I can’t wait to get my hands on one again to give it a thorough testing.

So could the Asus be the “one laptop per child” that we’ve all been waiting for…?!

Tags: Asus Eee PC, Firefox, Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice, PDAs, Pidgin, RM Asus miniBook, Thunderbird, TuxPaint

Recently I sold an old edition of Microsoft Office 2000 Professional on eBay. I was rather surprised to get just over £50 for it. Yes, that much for a copy of M$ Office that is 3 versions before the current version on the market! I guess it achieved the price it did because the buyer could then purchase the latest version, M$ Office 2007, as an upgrade and therefore at a much reduced cost from the full version. But why do people insist on paying for M$ Office when they can have a good, free office suite instead – OpenOffice.org?

Open source software seems to be looked at with some suspicion by some people. This appears to stem from two incorrect thoughts – “if its free it can’t be any good” and “there’s no support”. Let’s take each of these in turn.

1. If it’s free it can’t be any good – well take a look at Firefox. Or OpenOffice.org. Or Audacity. Or GIMPShop. Or Moodle. Try any of these and you will see that these are decent programs. In the case of Firefox, some (me included) would say it’s a far better browser than Internet Explorer.
2. There’s no support – not true. There is support through forums, usergroups and the ability to contact the software author. OK, this isn’t the same as picking up the phone to a software manufacturer. However, with enthusiasts for the software out there, the response to a problem can often be quicker and is often solved by the community rather than the author. Not that the author doesn’t listen to the users. Feedback plays a crucial part in the development of open source software, with suggestions from those who use the software shaping the next iteration of the program.

Some countries have already woken up to the possibility of using open source software including the US and parts of Europe such as Germany. The UK seems to be lagging behind, as usual.

In the UK education sector there is some use of open source software going on. Moodle is being used by schools in some authorities (including Buckinghamshire). However, the uptake of open source software is certainly not huge.

A while ago I spoke to a well-known educational hardware and software supplier about the possibility of offering OpenOffice.org instead of M$ Office. The response I got was that they had considered this in the past but there wasn’t the demand for it. Rather than offer it as an alternative, no choice was given and it was (and still is) M$ Office for your office suite. I do wonder how much of this decision is commercially driven and keeps the company’s relationship with Microsoft sweet…?

Personally I think OpenOffice.org is a credible alternative to M$ Office. OK, it doesn’t look quite as pretty as Microsoft’s latest iteration but it is sound and would at least suit the needs of pupils in primary schools, if not secondary. The old excuse of sticking with M$ Office as it is the “industry standard” doesn’t wash – pupils leaving school now at 18 would have joined the education system when M$ Office 3.0 was being used (M$ Office 2007 is version 12). Many would have started computing in schools with a BBC Master 128 or Acorn Archimedes 3000. What they first used is nothing like what they will use in the workplace today. So there’s no reason for pupils today not to be using open source software just because it isn’t used in industry (yet!)

So am I saying that schools should just be ditching all commercial software for open source alternatives? No! Firstly there isn’t an open source alternative for all commercial software. Secondly, some commercial software is more suitable for use by pupils and teachers than open source software. For example, Audacity is a great sound editor and can be used to create podcasts (although you’d have to create the RSS feed yourself of use a separate piece of software to do this). However, Podium is a lot easier to use, especially for primary pupils and teachers as this creates the podcast and publishes it, so allowing the focus for the school to be on learning and teaching with podcasts rather than on the technicalities of publishing them. Before anyone points me to Odeo Studio (which is free but isn’t open source), I am aware of this but it isn’t as flexible as Podium, plus podcasts are hosted on the Odeo website and not on your own.

I think my mission this year should be to get schools to consider open source software as an alternative to commercial software. The main consideration in what software should be used is its fitness for purpose and whether it will allow pupils and teachers to focus on learning and teaching rather than on ICT technical issues. If the software that does that is open source, then great. If commercial software proves to be better in that instance, then so be it.

I must now get around to compiling a list of open source software. When I do, I’ll post it on a page in this blog.

Tags: Acorn, Acorn Archimedes, Audacity, BBC Master, Buckinghamshire, Firefox, GIMPShop, Microsoft Office, Moodle, Odeo Studio, Open Source, OpenOffice.org, podcast, podcasting, Podium

A sunny start to the final full day of the conference!

A History of the Future
The final keynote of the conference was from Ian Neild, BT.

Ian gave a very interesting and entertaining talk on how technology has changed life over the last century.

There is too much to note here on what he said – I’m hoping that his presentation will be made available

Amongst the many interesting slides I saw in the presentation, here are two pictures that stuck in my mind:

1. A Barbie USB drive – pull off head and plug into a computer.
   
2. A nano guitar – size of blood cell & with 6 “pluckable” strings!
   

OK, this isn’t really a good summary of the keynote. It was very entertaining though and just what was needed on a Thursday morning!

Using Moodle as a Core Component of a Local Authority Learning Platform
This themed session was from my colleague Ian Usher, E-Learning Co-ordinator, School Improvement Service, Buckinghamshire CC. Well, I had to go and support Ian, didn’t I?!!

Ian did spend a lot of time talking about Open Source Software and justifying why we use it (Moodle). Unfortunately this meant that only a short time was spent looking at what Buckinghamshire schools had done. Ian only had time to show some examples of uses of forums and we didn’t get a chance to see some of the Moodle courses that schools have made. This was a shame as some of this is good stuff.

It was interesting to see who turned up to watch this (approx 60 in all) including Robin Hall from Becta and someone from RM. It was also interesting to see members of the audience jump in to defend the use of forums by pupils when someone asked what value was added when pupils commented on another pupil’s musical composition and couldn’t they just type the word “sh*t” in there. The value in this case is two-fold. Firstly the pupil was sharing music that he had created at home – not in school – and through this he has been put onto the Able, Gifted & Talented register. Secondly all pupils had the opportunity to give feedback to this pupil if they wished, something that they would not all be able to do in school due to time constraints. Teachers can then help them develop their constructive criticism and evaluation of work from this.

Extending the Primary School through Learning Platforms
This themed session was from Miles Berry, Headmaster, Alton Convent Prep.

Miles is an advocate of open source software and the Moodle VLE.

Miles talked about the work he had done with Moodle at his previous school, St Ives. There was some good use of:

• forums to discuss homework and support each other.
• video capture of work going on at the Interactive Whiteboard to view from home and support homework.
• flash and java activities on the VLE.

The issue of work-life balance was raised by two attendees. This is a good question and needs careful consideration. Although some teacher input is required it doesn’t mean teachers have to work all the time. Leaving it to pupils to support each other and to intervene only when needed is much better, not just for the teacher but for pupils. This allows them to learn how to support and collaborate with each other, plus consolidates the learning for a pupil when explaining it to another pupil.

Miles had done a lot of data analysis to back up the work he had been doing. One example he showed was that using the VLE seemed to improve SATs scores by 2-3 % although this is not statistically significant.

Miles mentioned Elgg and the work he began on this. He said that this brought home-based learning back into the classroom through pupils’ use of the blogging facilities. Miles said that, in a sense it’s “a digital show and tell”.

An interesting and passionate presentation.

Online Social Networking and Teacher CPD
The themed session was from Mark Berthelemy, Learning Solutions Architect, Capita Learning and Development.

This was about Mark’s own CPD and how he uses Web 2.0 tools to enable it.Mark has a learning network – Ian Usher, Miles Berry, Stephen Downes etc – whose blogs, newsletters etc inform him about what he needs to know. Broadcasting your knowledge, thoughts and reflections extends your reach to inform others.

Blogdigger – gives you a personalised RSS feed on what others are blogging. Mark uses Google Reader to put together the RSS feeds he reads.

So should others in an organisation begin blogging to allow them to share their thoughts and experiences and learn from others? The answer is probably yes and there would no doubt be benefits. However there are also issues:

• Managing time so that blogging is just not another job to do.
• Some may not have sufficient ICT literacy to do this
• Some will not want to blog – especially those just ‘coasting’ in their jobs and only doing the minimum to get by and draw their paycheck.

All of Mark’s bookmarks from the presentation are on Diigo under the naace2007 tag.

Mark said that it would be great if the chief executive of a company, LA etc were to start blogging. That’d certainly be interesting to see in Buckinghamshire! Maybe we should get the County ICT Adviser and other ICT Consultants to join me in blogging first…!

A useful and thought provoking session.

The final afternoon
The presentational side of the Naace Conference 2007 drew to an end with two sessions.

The first of these sessions was Expert Panel: Meeting the Challenge. There were summaries of the three theme strands: Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment, ICT CPD and Learning Platforms and Web 2.0 from various members from backgrounds including HMI, Ofsted, QCA, National Strategy and the Naace Executive. There followed an unexciting question and answer session.

The second session was Becta: Responding to the Challenge, chaired by Stephen Crowne, Chief Executive, Becta. Another enthralling question and answer session. Yawn.

Maybe this is why less than half the conference bothered to turn up?!

The Naace Conference 2007 ended with Closing Remarks from Terry Freedman, Chair of Naace Executive Committee.

Was the Naace Conference 2007 any good?
On the whole I would say it was. Yes, there were a few duff sessions and some of the organisation left something to be desired (for example, no coffee on the Wednesday morning). However, most of the sessions were interesting and thought provoking and I found it beneficial. Time now for me to reflect on the Learning Platforms and Web 2.0 stuff I’ve seen and think about how I can do my bit in Buckinghamshire to move this forward.

Tags: Barbie, Becta, blog, Blogdigger, Buckinghamshire, Diigo, Elgg, Google Reader, Ian Neild, Ian Usher, Learning Platform, Mark Bethelemy, Miles Berry, Moodle, Naace, naace2007, nano guitar, Open Source, RSS, Social Networking, Stephen Downes, Terry Freedman, Web 2.0